Faith Today Interviews media Researcher
If It sounds like Bias . . .
does bias against evangelical beliefs and practices ever slip into main-
stream reporting ...or are we Evangelicals all just being over-sensitive?
david haskell of wilfrid laurier university looked at this ques-
tion by surveying Canadian journalists and analyzing 11
years of Tv news. The results just might surprise you.
his book is Through A Lens Darkly: How the News
Media Perceive and Portray Evangelicals (Clements,
2009). he spoke with Faith Today about his
research. By Patricia Paddey
ft: Tell us about the research that led
to your new book.
dh: The book brings together several
studies I’ve conducted over the past
few years to determine how Canadian
journalists feel about Evangelicals, how
they report on Evangelicals, and how
and when their feelings influence their
reporting. The core of the research is
a survey of national journalists and an
analysis of 11 years of television news
reports. I look at the effect of news reports about Evangelicals on viewers who
aren’t Evangelicals. I also include a case
study that looks at national newspaper
coverage of Evangelicals involved in the
same-sex marriage debate.
ft: Why was it important to you to
explore this issue?
dh: I’m a practising Christian and I’ve
made my living as a professional journalist so I’ve got my feet in both camps. For
years I’ve heard Evangelicals complain
the media treats them unfairly. I wanted
to see if their charge of media bias had
any merit; but I also wanted to move beyond anecdotal examples and verify or
negate the charge empirically.
ft: So are we justified in feeling unfairly treated?
dh: I take the whole second half of my
book to explain the nuances of my findings, and I hope your readers will want
to know those details. But the evidence
shows that, when the
beliefs and actions of
Canadian Evangelicals
directly clashed with the
heartfelt convictions of
national journalists, the
journalists were willing
to abandon their profes-
sional objectivity and slant
their stories against their
ideological opponents.
ft: Your research also re-
david haskell: don’t compromise your beliefs
vealed that, in TV news reports,
but lead with compassion.
Evangelicals tend to be portrayed
as “somewhat intolerant, insincere,
criminally minded, politically threatening, un-Canadian and slightly unintelligent.” So what’s the good news?
dh: In certain cases, with persistence
and the right combination of rhetorical elements, Evangelicals were able to
convince journalists to cover them more
neutrally and less adversarially.
ft: When you asked journalists to list
the main characteristics of Evangelicals, the two traits they most strongly
associated with us were haughtiness
and intolerance toward homosexuals.
Any insights as to why?
dh: There are a number of factors contributing to this perception. One is the
diametrically opposed world views of
the two groups. Adding to the problem is the lack of real, personal interaction between national journalists and
Evangelicals. Few of the journalists
surveyed said they had close friends
who are Evangelicals. Ironically, much
of what they know about Evangelicals
comes from watching the news. It’s
possible a circle of negative coverage
has developed in which journalists accept Evangelical stereotypes promoted
in past news stories as valid and then
propagate them in current stories.
ft: Do you see any reason to hope such
perceptions will change?
dh: Changing perceptions depends a
